Posts Tagged ‘Protect Wild Dolphins’

On October 19, 2012, a fresh dead bottlenose dolphin was reported floating near Bogue Sound at Emerald Isle. NC Maritime Museum volunteers David and Bobbi Brown assisted Dr. Victoria Thayer from the NC Division of Marine Fisheries and NC Maritime Museum Natural Science Curator Keith Rittmaster in retrieving the carcass which was frozen for later analysis. The carcass (#KAR030) was used as a valuable dolphin research and training tool for volunteers and students. A careful exam and subsequent necropsy revealed fresh monofilament line scars from a gill net on all appendages of the otherwise healthy juvenile male bottlenose dolphin. The marine mammal stranding network reminds you to please make use of the fishing line recycle bins located along the coast.

On October 7th, 2011, Kat Fourhman of the NC Aquarium at Roanoke Island responded to a stranding of a dead bottlenose dolphin on the shore of Roanoke Sound near Manteo, NC.Paul Doshkov of Cape Hatteras National Seashore assisted with the investigation.It was a 175cm (5’ 9”) male.At that size he would have been around 2 years old, still nursing, growing fast.Monofilament line from 2 different types of gill nets surrounded the rostrum and left pectoral fin.

The Cape Lookout Studies Program and the North Carolina Maritime Museum have a license plate program with a great conservation message.

By purchasing the special “Protect Wild Dolphin” NC Maritime Museum special license plate you will be supporting the museum’s research, conservation and education programs. Demonstrating your interest in protecting bottlenose dolphins and their habitat and making your car look better!

The coolest drivers Protect Wild Dolphins

The NCMM license plate proceeds help protect and increase our understanding of bottlenose dolphins that frequent the North Carolina coast.

Revenues from the plate sales will benefit the Cape Lookout Studies Program through the Friends of the Museum to support the education, conservation and research programs of the North Carolina Maritime Museum in Beaufort.

Keith Rittmaster with the right plate

Protect Wild Dolphins License Plate, better than an OBX sticker

Sale of the dolphin plates will benefit both this project, and environmental studies and educational field trips that are part of the Maritime Museum’s Cape Lookout Studies Program. For each $30 plate purchased, the Friends of the Maritime Museum support group will receive $20. To personalize a dolphin plate requires an additional $20.

Breakdown of Protect Wild Dolphins” license plate sales by quarter. It’s time to make your mark on the graph!

2003 NC Student Grants
Oct 21, 2003

Photos by Keith Rittmaster

Congratulations to the 2003 “Protect Wild Dolphins” grant recipients and thank you for your good work.

Recipients are all NC graduate students doing research on bottlenose dolphins. The grants are to help them defray the cost of presenting their work at the Society for Marine Mammalogy XV Biennial Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals Dec. 14 through the 19th. in Greensboro, NC. Below is a list of the recipients with a short paragraph on how their research will help us protect and learn more about bottlenose dolphins. These grants are funded by the sale of the NC Maritime Museum’s “Protect Wild Dolphins” license plates.

Michelle Barbieri – UNCW

The observed changes in dorsal fin surface temperatures, which reflect delivery of body heat to the periphery via blood flow, may influence the ability of an individual to dissipate excess body heat. A better understanding of the adaptive physiological mechanisms used by bottlenose dolphins, specifically the role of the dorsal fin in thermoregulation across a broad range of water temperatures, will provide the knowledge necessary to guide decisions regarding the health, in the case of incidental beach strandings, and conservation of wild dolphins. Though the particular project I am presenting focuses on dolphins in Sarasota Bay, I am collecting data for similar research in the Wilmington, NC area in hopes that this may help us understand the physiological adaptations of our local dolphins to environmental temperature as well.

Kim Fleming – UNCW

Social structure and behavior of bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) in relation to shrimp trawlers in Southport, NC

Most studies of dolphin-fishery interactions focus on negative aspects such as competition and entanglement. My research takes a novel approach by looking at potential impacts of fishery interactions on dolphin behavior and social structure. Using photo-identification, I am evaluating whether dolphins that interact with shrimp-trawlers in Southport, NC differ from those that do not with respect to their activity and association patterns.

Leigh G. Torres – Duke

Bottlenose dolphins as an indicator species of ecosystem restoration in Florida Bay

Habitat quality is an important factor in the management of wild dolphin populations. This work links various measurements of habitat quality to the distribution ecology and habitat use of bottlenose dolphins throughout Florida Bay.

Erin Meagher – UNCW

The work I will be presenting describes how wild bottlenose dolphins are able to regulate their body temperature across a range of ambient temperatures. These data will hopefully provide baseline information that will be useful for monitoring populations of dolphins as global warming changes their coastal ecosystem.

Robin Dunkin – UNCW

My work is going to help us understand the impact of changes in a dolphins blubber mass on functions such as buoyancy and thermoregulation. Additionally, it promotes the protection of wild dolphins by furthering our understanding of their basic physiology. This kind of information is a necessity for understanding energetic demands, potential natural and anthropogenic stresses, and a number of other parameters that influence the survivorship of wild dolphin populations.

Carter Morrissette – UNCW

Quantifying stereotypy of bottlenose dolphin signature whistles

My research focuses on quantifying features of bottlenose dolphin signature whistles, such as duration, frequency content, and inter-loop intervals. This work will provide insights as to what constitutes a single whistle, an issue that is currently quite controversial. This information could prove useful in situations where remote acoustic monitoring could be used to assess the number of dolphins in a particular area. Such a technique could be a valuable supplement to photo-identification for purposes of stock assessment and/or management.

Tursiops

Nicole

Tursiops

I just talked to the first responder. No conclusion could be made. The injury to the jaw was fresh, but didn’t appear to be caused by the beaching. The researchers are always careful not to speculate in cases like this because there are so many variables.